


Not Supposed

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Comment Fic 2016 [130]
Category: Kings (TV 2009)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-10 15:26:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8922445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Kings, Jack/David, one of those soulmate-bonds-initiated-by-touch AUs – and neither of them realizes when it happens, due to that whole trying-to-escape thing."Crown Prince Jack Benjamin isn't supposed to be bonded to another man. David Shepherd isn't supposed to be playing the Broadwood Grand piano in the palace.





	

**i.**  
  
Jack thought the nightmares were just that - nightmares. Gunfire. Grenades exploding. Dirt in his mouth and nose and ears, huddled down in a trench and being terrified of death.  
  
But the emotional serenity underneath it all was alien. Foreign. Wrong. Jack Benjamin wasn’t allowed to have that kind of security, that foundational belief that what he was doing was right and virtuous and all would be fine in the end, because he had faith, because his family loved him.  
  
So when his brother plucked a cigarette from between his lips, said their mom had given him orders to protect him, Jack was confused.  
  
And then he woke, heart pounding, head still aching from where he’d been struck, and he realized.  
  
The dreams weren’t nightmares. They were memories.  
  
His soulmate’s memories.  
  
He thought of Joseph, with his soft, angelic features and his limpid eyes, and the girls he danced with at clubs, and he wondered what the hell had happened, and when, and how, and _how_ , because he was the crown prince of Gilboa, and there was a lot things he wasn’t supposed to be, and bonded to another man was one of them.  
  
**ii.**  
  
David knew what had happened as soon as he swam back to consciousness from the dream, because his parents had been soulmates (were soulmates, would join together when Ma crossed over to join Dad). But he was confused, because all he’d seen was hospitals and white ceilings and felt sterile sheets and pain, pain, pain. Ma and Dad had Awakened to each other during a harvest, working side-by-side in a corn field and Dad had said _Pass that sickle, please?_ and Ma had said _You can reach it yourself_ but she’d rolled her eyes and extended a hand and he’d done it at the same time and there it was. The flash of revelation. The realization.  
  
You belong to me.  
  
David had touched and been touched by an awful lot of people since his foolhardy dash across Gath battle lines to rescue a couple of Gilboan hostages (one of them Prince Jack, unrecognizable beneath a bandage and pain). He’d been patted on the back, patted on the shoulder, shook hands with innumerable officers, had his hair ruffled.  
  
He had no idea who his soulmate was, only that he was in pain, and he didn’t know how to ask who or how to make it stop.  
  
So he didn’t really sleep after that.

 **iii.**  
  
“You saved my life. You can call me Jack,” he said. “You’ve earned it.”  
  
David Shepherd’s smile was sweet, bright. Jack kind of wanted to hate him. When Father swept into the room, glad-handed Shepherd and promoted him to captain in one fell swoop, Jack thought he did hate Shepherd for a second. But - no.  
  
And then Jack’s valet found him and bullied him into stylish clothes Mother had selected with her frightening exactitude, and Jack was attempting to be social at a party that was to celebrate a farmboy and was a subtle reminder from Father about what a failure he was, that he’d needed rescuing, that most of his men had died, and Jack couldn’t take it anymore. Had to escape.  
  
Ducked into a side room.  
  
And found Shepherd there, who’d apparently felt the same way. Only he was sitting at the Broadwood Grand, the one from the Premier of Austeria, and his expression was serene (Jack knew that serenity, in dreams), and the music he was making was beautiful.  
  
“Liszt,” Jack said, because he’d paid attention to his tutors.  
  
Shepherd looked surprised but his hands didn’t falter on the keys. “Yes.”  
  
“That piano’s old enough that Liszt could have used it when he wrote that song.” Jack leaned against the doorframe in a way that would make both his valet and his drill sergeants weep for his posture.  
  
“I’ve only ever seen one of these in pictures,” Shepherd said. “You can have me thrown in jail if you want, but at least let me finish the song.”  
  
“Only because you play it well.” Jack smiled, because Shepherd played very well.  
  
The song ended with a flourish, notes hanging in the air. And then Shepherd smiled at him. “Do you play?”  
  
Michelle played the cello, and Jack played the violin, because Mother had thought it would be quaint, the two of them playing duets. But Jack was passable enough on the piano to play a few songs.  
  
“Stop me if you’ve heard this one,” Jack said, and he crossed the room, sank down on the piano bench beside Shepherd, who shuffled over obligingly. Jack reached out, caught Shepherd’s wrist to pluck his hands aside, and -  
  
Flash of revelation. Realization.  
  
_You belong to me._  
  
**iv.**  
  
David’s heart pounded when Jack leaned over and kissed him, and it was soft and sweet and perfect, and he didn’t understand why, when Jack pulled back, he looked heartbroken.  
  
He should have been elated. They were soulmates. They’d found each other.  
  
David wondered when it had happened - in the tent, when he’d reached out to check the anonymous prisoner of war? When they were running away from the camp? When he was pushing Jack down into a trench so he could escape? When they were rattling along in a jeep, headed for a hospital tent?  
  
Jack, trembling, said, “I’m sorry,” and pushed himself to his feet and fled, and David didn’t understand.  
  
And then Michelle appeared in the doorway, and she said, “You’re not supposed to play that.”


End file.
